Matching a Digital Chamber of Commerce with a Real One
There’s no question that small businesses find their feet today first in the digital world before they have found an establishment in the physical storefront paradigm. This is because the cost of entry and startup is so much more expensive online. Add in the fact that search and most business presence awareness happen online, the playing field is leveled considerably for many small businesses that deal with retail and customer needs. It’s only in the business-to-business arena that size and presence matter much more with physical addresses and stability.
A New Channel of Membership for Chambers
Given the above, it makes sense that a modern chamber of commerce strategy in many towns and communities should also consider a digital chamber of commerce version of themselves. By reaching out online and combining their in-person membership with an online presence, startups and small businesses in the same communities can benefit greatly from traditional chamber benefits their members otherwise enjoy offline.
Benefits for the Digital Startup
For startups and small businesses, a chamber of commerce is a heavy concentration of connections, leads, new business opportunities, and partnerships. That’s because chamber members support each other to help the overall community grow more. It’s also a great way for new small businesses with only an online presence to break into the business-to-business arena, finding first opportunities working with real businesses in their same town and neighborhoods.
Opportunities for Physical Chambers
Traditional chambers like that of the Montrose Chamber of Commerce and others are at a crossroads. They have a stable but aging membership of traditional businesses, but new membership candidates aren’t showing up in big numbers. That’s because they are online versus opening up street-level storefronts. They are finding their forums and communities in social media instead. A traditional chamber of commerce can find relevancy again by creating a presence of itself online, thereby leveraging the programs it already offers to online new member applicants who want to retain their digital presence and not go full traditional mode just yet.
Change With the Times
A silver lining of the pandemic was that it opened up the awareness of the chambers to the digital business thriving all around them as digital conferences became the norm. It only makes sense for the Montrose chamber and others to build on that knowledge and expand their membership with digital membership channels. Not doing so may only end up relegating traditional chambers of commerce to antiquity, which doesn’t benefit anyone.
